Inner Teacher

Life Purpose

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

Welcome home to your wise, inner self. This recording will guide you through symbolic inner rooms to take you deeper and deeper into your own true nature and lead you to the gift to yourself of remembering and affirming your life purpose to help you align your daily activities and become more effective and engaged.

Self-Awareness

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

This practice is adapted from The Power of Kindness: Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life by Piero Ferrucci. This practice can also be considered a mindfulness practice–mindfulness of sensations, thoughts, and emotions–helping us know ourselves as awareness and peace.

Autogenic Training

Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH

Autogenic training is a simple practice of sitting or lying quietly while repeating a series of 6 phrases that elicit relaxation and ease. This guided practice is adapted from Autogenic Training by Dr. Kai Kermani. A 2002 meta-analysis of over 60 studies published on autogenic training concluded that this practice can offer significant benefits for people with headaches, including migraine headaches; mild-moderate hypertension; asthma; anxiety; depression; and insomnia.

Breathing Deeply for Relaxation and Stress Relief

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

This practice, using diaphragmatic breathing with a soft belly, is adapted from Dr. James Gordon’s work at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC. It helps promote deep relaxation and reduces stress.

Easing Pain

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

This meditation is adapted from Guided Meditations, Explorations, and Healings by Dr. Stephen Levine. It helps us notice our pain without judgment, breathing into it with curiosity, compassion, softness, and space. It can also be used as a mindfulness practice to change our relationship to pain and promote relaxation and ease.

Prepare for Procedure

Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH

You have the power to improve the outcome of a medical procedure through physical and mental preparation. This guided imagery recording will help you get into the best mental state to improve the outcome of your next procedure–whether it’s as simple as a blood draw or injection or as complex as a biopsy.

Prepare for Surgery

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

Face surgery with greater confidence and ease by listening to these affirmations in advance. This guided imagery practice is based on Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster by Peggy Huddleston. Research suggests that patients who use this kind of preparation prior to surgery require 23-60% less pain medication, return home more quickly, and heal faster than those who don’t.

Relaxation Imagery with a Pool of Light

Safe Place

Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH

Deeply imagining oneself in a safe, secure place helps create the same physiologic state as actually being in that space. Repeated practice can help promote restful sleep and balanced autonomic and immune function as well as mental clarity and calm, confidence.

Skill Master

Patrice Rancour, MS, RN, PMHCNS-BC

Would you like to master a special skill? Many athletes use guided imagery like this to help improve their skill and performance. Practicing this imagery can help you learn and practice a selected skill to help you gain confidence and mastery.